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While confessing sins and making amends are possible at any time, Yom Kippur focuses on confession. Known by the Hebrew word vidui, the Yom Kippur confession is a public and communal act, recited in the plural. Forgiveness is asked for horrendous sins that the vast majority of individuals did not commit. There are two forms of confession on Yom Kippur; the long confession called the "al chet" (for the sin) and the short alphabetic confession known simply as the vidui (confession).

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants on June 25, 2006, and is still being held hostage by Hamas. On this second anniversary of his abduction, Jewish Facebook members around the world have shown their support by changing their Facebook profile photo to a widely circulated image of Gilad, provided by his family.

Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Yom Ha'atzmaut is the national Israel independence day, commemorating the declaration of independence of Israel on May 14, 1948. Nothing funny about that.

Battlestar Galactica is the best show on television. The season premiere for this fourth and last season is Friday night 10pm EST on the SciFi Channel. Don't worry, if you miss it, you're not totally frakked ... You can catch it in repeat on Sunday.

A D'var Torah is a talk on topics relating to the part of the Torah. In respect to its place in synagogues, rabbis will often give their D'var Torah after the Torah service. Dvar Torahs can range in length, depending on the rabbi and the depth of the talk. In most congregations, it will not last much longer that fifteen minutes, but in the case of Rebbes or special occasions, a Dvar Torah can last all afternoon.

Tay-Sachs Disease (TSD) is a fatal genetic disorder that has shown increased prevalence in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. If two unaffected parents each carry the recessive TSD gene, they have a 1-in-4 chance of bearing an affected TSD child. Some couples will proactively get tested for the recessive TSD gene, to see if they are at risk of bearing a child with TSD.